A Very Scary Thought

It can ruin your career. It can destroy your reputation. It can cost you a lifetime of money. It can make your life crazy. Libel. One small, five-letter, very scary word. Especially scary to a journalist. Just talking about it makes me want to check and recheck even my email blasts. Just in case, you know.

Well, thinking about libel brought me to this story about the murder of Ryan Skipper. I was reading the article and then decided to check it out and see if the Ledger editors were being careful of libel. If I was the editor reading this story I would first check for libel concerning the man who allegedly hid the knife, W.D. Brown. We probably already think Brown's father at least knew about the murder and was perhaps hiding the murder weapon; however, it was just a tip and could be false. The newspaper should not give W.D. Brown any cause to sue for libel.

This writer helped protect the newspaper from libel by using correct language in his article. He wrote that the knife was "possibly connected" to the killing and made clear the information was from a tip. Also, the information used was from a court room session, which is privileged. The note was given to the judge during the trial and read to the court. The writer makes it a point to say, “according to the note prosecutors handed to the judge.” The newspaper article contains only quotes of Jeff Mann relating the events that happened and led to him finding the knife in the tree; it did not include an accusatory quotes. The only quote that is opinion about the situation is from the judge, J. Michael Hunter, where he describes the situation as “unbelievable.” I’m not sure if this would be a problem either way, but it is privileged information because it was made during the trial, which is an official public forum.

There is another article that was published two or three weeks ago and came with a correction box. Apparently, a previous article said that trials would begin that week for “two defendants,” when in actuality only Joseph Eli Bearden was to go on trial. Sometimes when mistakes are made, printing a correction will suffice. However, as journalists, we should never assume that a mistake can be made right by simply printing a correction.

This is a classic case of having to be objective and keep your own opinions and bias out of journalism. Things are not always what they seem. Sometime people suffer for journalists’ mistakes or rushing to judgment. In the end, however, it is the journalists who have to cough up the cash to settle for convicting someone in the eyes of the public before they are actually convicted.